


Pancakes & Pearls

by Hope



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Gen, Pre-Series, Weechesters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-06-13
Updated: 2006-06-13
Packaged: 2017-10-02 00:08:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 543
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/538
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hope/pseuds/Hope
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dean reads Batman.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Pancakes & Pearls

*

They’re in a diner in some bland mid-west town when the waitress brings Dean and Sam a stack of dog-eared picture books along with their juice.

Dad’s writing in his journal, back bent inward away from the cracked vinyl of the seat to focus down on it, not shrugging off but not acknowledging the tenacious grip of Sammy’s chubby fingers in the folds of leather at his elbow.

Sammy’s attention-noises are getting steadily louder, wordless blips like the radio when Dad’s speeding through the frequencies, so Dean disengages Sammy’s hand and wraps his fist around a crayon instead, pulling a colouring book from the stack of soft-worn paper. Most of the pages are coloured in already, some with food-spills as well as crayon, but Sammy doesn’t seem to mind; arm moving in broad, jerky motions as they sweep across the page Dean’s turned it to, a clear imitation of Dad, from the way Sam keeps looking back and forth between their respective books, though with considerably less motor control.

Dean makes sure Sammy's juice isn't about to get knocked over by an over-enthusiastic crayon-stroke, and flicks through the rest of the stack. They're all kids books, some with pictures Dean vaguely recognises from stays with Pastor Jim, men with beards and white dresses, giant boats with sheep and giraffes and elephants; some even simpler, with huge, round black words and black-outlined pictures with bright, solid colours. There's one with a softer cover, brighter mess of lines and colours on it, heavier black.

There're guns in it. Pages he automatically covers when the waitress comes back with their food (pancakes for Dean and Dad, creamed corn for Sammy), heart in his throat. His sleeve's not big enough to cover the whole page but the waitress doesn't say anything and Dad only looks up briefly before turning his head down again.

The words look funny, letters Dean can't identify them though he recognises them vaguely, more used to the white-on-black of the blackboard at school than the black-on-white here. The pictures, though… more on every page than any of the books Dean's read at school, any of the other books in the stack on the greasy diner table. Dean's eyes follow them through like they're goading him on, drawing him in; huge buildings with gargoyles he can't tell are stone or real, long coats and short-brimmed hats, boots and ties and a boy with a family. An alleyway. Pearls.

"Dean," Dad says, and Dean flips the book closed almost violently. Sammy has creamed corn all over his face, Dad wiping at it with a paper napkin while Sammy paints his jacket with a corn-covered crayon. Dad looks pointedly from Dean's untouched pancakes to Dean's face. "Get a move on, we don't have all day."

Dean doesn't feel hungry any more, but he eats the pancakes anyhow, and slips the book up under his sweater while the waitress is getting Dad's change, along with a couple of the ones with harder covers. _Green Eggs And Ham_. Sammy loves being read to, and he isn't old enough yet to know when Dean's just making up words to go in place of the ones he can't read yet, Sammy's tiny hands patting at the pictures on the page.

**Author's Note:**

> http://hopeful-fiction.livejournal.com/43252.html


End file.
